Part 3

"So let me get this straight, Monica, she has an entire story dedicated to roasting other authors but the instant her own is criticised, its "bullying" and "harassment"."

"I was hoping this story would get better but given the fact she feels that other people's branches are a "threat" to her own, I don't have much faith in her."

"You do know Karen's gonna have another tantrum in the comments again, right? I mean she's literally cited disagreeing with herself as "proof" of a conspiracy against her. I doubt there's gonna be any reasoning with her."

READING IN PROGRESS

Cow sometimes had these periods where she was almost nice to me. But that was all an act, to make me let my guard down so that she could **** me even more...or is it?

"I know we're supposed to think Gina's wrong about that but... Its not the impression Marcie leaves. I don't think Gambio knows how to write complex characters. This is probably why Marcie seems so inconsistent most of the time."

“I needed to even the playing field, this was purely for my own satisfaction.”
“Yes”, Cow replied with a smile. “I have the overwhelming advantage in this. Meanwhile you have to fight an uphill battle with only a tiny sliver of a chance at victory. Still it's not zero. So If you don't want to get crushed by me, you have **** but to struggle with all your might.”

"If you have a overwhelming advantage, then you've not evened the playing field."

“Any thoughts of rebellion against me on your part must be put down by writing. You are to send a report to me per mail each evening. If you have nothing to report, send me this.”

"This game is blatantly rigged. Uknown7, Google2020 and IWannaSpankGirls' depiction of Marcie is completely accurate."

"Dude, Jess, if we keep praising people Karen hates, her head is gonna explode."

Beyond that...making Cow feel sorry for me seems to be the only way. But how can I accomplish that when I am only allowed to tell the truth?

"Given the fact she felt sorry for you because you live in a normal house, it shouldn't be too hard. Just tell her about any dead pets you've got or how the convertible you got was a different colour to what you wanted."

"The major issue with this story is that Marcie and Gina are both awful so I don't care about the outcome of their game. I think it might have worked better if Marcie hadn't betrayed Susan like that or if Gina had some redeeming qualities. That way, we'd have someone to root for."

"Too bad some bozos ended up spoiling major plot lines with their constant arguing about this crappy story. And the fact someone had to literally title their own branch "The Redemption of Gina Walker" kinda implies that she aren't getting redeemed in this one."

Of course I can't let my guard down, but to know that I had a fighting chance, no matter how small, made all the difference.

"That's not a chance!"

"And then we get some more telling, not showing. Apparently, Emma is supposed to be like how Marcie used to be but Marcie doesn't seem to have ever been like her."

"I can't help thinking Gina's cronies have a point if members keep defecting every time a nerd joins."

"How many members did the Royal Magnificent have? I might be wrong but wasn't it like twenty? That means they lost half their group by now and will probably be reduced to about nine members including Marcie, Gina, Lindsey and Emma."

"The same thing has probably happened to the readership."

"That tends to happen when you shoehorn malesub humiliation in a story that's supposed to be about femsub humiliation. Nobody likes a bait and switch. I think Gambio would have been better off making her own story about a male Gina instead of this Cursed Punishment hatefic."

"Lindsey's plan is stupid. Trying to make it look like Marel is trying to frame the Royal Magic... Fuck it! I can't keep saying the full stupid name! The point is-"

"Basically, Jess, the plan is to attack Sublime Blue and make it look like Marel is trying to frame Gina. It's unnecessary complicated and it would quickly fall apart in real life."

"Why do you need Lauren to suspect you at all?! In real life Lauren would just assume Gina's talking shit. If anything, it would cause Lauren to team up with Marel."

"She'd be better off just framing Marel for attacking Sublime Blue directly rather than this framing Marel for framing them thing."

“There is a chance that Lauren thinks this is just a straightforward attack from us.”

"That's putting it lightly! This plan WILL backfire on Lindsey specularly!"

“It is a bit too convoluted for my taste.”

"I can't believe, I'm agreeing with Marcie on this."

“I abhor ****. You are free to punish Susan as you see fit, but should she come to any physical harm I will have you answer for it.”

"Too bad she allows Gina to **** Susan. I was hoping that at least one of them would have some positive qualify but this just proves that Marcie and Gina are both indeed irredeemable monsters. And Karen wonders why other people keep writing their own branches."

"And she whines about how "psychotic" Gina's mom is in Zechs195's branch."

"The thing is, I've looked at that story and none of the issues Gambio has with it are even true."

"So Karen wrote this story because she was bullhurt over Zechs' and wanted to "fix" it, only to end up making the same mistake she imagined Zechs making, and then decrees that nobody else should be allowed any artistic vision that contradicts her own."

"That just seems spiteful. I am confused about having Vanessa be one of the victims that gets molested. Is Vanessa just taking one for the team or did Marcie betray her like she did to Susan? I mean it could have been Lindsey's idea since its her stupid plan but Gambio is very vague about it."

“What else could it be? I can tell you right away this wasn't Marel's doing. This isn't her style at all.”

"Aren't you trying to make Lauren think this IS Marel's doing?"

"For some reason, Lauren acts as though Gina suggested it WAS Marel's doing. Maybe Gina was being sarcastic but it's hard to tell if that's the case or Gambio just made a typo."

"With the way Karen responds to criticism, Monica, we shouldn't give her the benefit of the doubt. It's a typo."

Cow nodded. “There was a very easily exploitable loophole in that order. I am a bit disappointed you didn't spot it.”
“What loophole?”, I asked blankly.
“I am sure you figure it out, when you think hard enough about it. Tell me, Gina. Do you feel stupid now?”

"But again, it's not clear what that loophole was. Or if it even existed. A big problem with Gambion's writing is that she doesn't clarify anything. She shows us one thing, then tells us the exact opposite and expects it to overrule. Hell, she even rails against "show, don't tell"."

"FYI, only talentless hacks actively choose to ignore the "show, don't tell" rule."

"And the next thing Marcie does is make Gina study. Something I do willing all the time. Gambio does realise she's writing porn, right?!!"

As much as I despise Gina, I despise wasted talent more.

"Karen has no idea how ironic that statement is, Jess. She has wasted a perfectly good plot and characters."

"Why is Gina reacting so strongly to this? Studying is just common sense. It doesn't make someone a nerd, god fucking dammit!! And how the fuck would this undermine Gina's authority? Did Marcie's mom drop her when she was a baby?"

"And suddenly Lindsey goes back to being the smart one."

Personally, I would be fine with keep using Gina as my figurehead, if it wasn't for one big issue. This curse, or rather this psychological issue Gina is experiencing right now might vanish at any moment. Gina has already demonstrated that my insurance is worth very little to her, as such I rather secure my powerbase sooner than later.

"Wait a minute! If that's true, wouldn't it have been better to go along with Susan's plan in the first place. Marcie's plan just seems like an overly elaborate version of what Susan supposedly did."

"This just makes Marcie a bigger idiot for backstabbing Susan. She'd have been better off keeping her as her number two. I would kill to have Susan as my lackey."

"I also find it hard to believe that that the Student Council is any worse than what the school has right now. Realistically everybody in the school would be begging for them to return to power."

Noname high really likes to have clubs gender specific. The basketball club is male, while the swimming club is female, the tennis club is male while the chess club is female. As it happens that's another idiotic relic of the Student council era, but such a strong tradition that it has yet to be contested.

"I'm pretty sure more boys are into chess than girls. If anything, the chess club would be male."

"Also, enough with malesub crap."

"It's likely a contributing factor to why most readers seem to have dropped out. That and the **** unlikability of both lead characters. And Gambio makes Marcie even worse by turning her into a disgusting bigot."

"Why is she not fucking cursed yet? Seriously universe, get off your ass and do your fucking job!"

"That is the biggest plot hole in this story. Despite Gambio's intentions, Marcie ends up seeming less like someone with some deep issues and more like some irredeemable monster. The opposite of what Karen claims. The fact that nobody else at this school seems as bad is her, Gina and Rina is another issue that contradicts what she wants us to believe."

I feel like I have to say for the record here that, while I identify myself as a feminist, I am not a crazed third wave extremist that wants to enslave all Men. As a matter of fact, I truly despise the damages they have done for the cause of true gender equality. Still, you need to give people what they want and Rina very obviously wants this.

"If that was true, you wouldn't be allying with a piece of shit like Rina."

"I already hate Rina. I don't know what Gambio was thinking."

“Ben as a cheerleader.” There was a bit of a weird smile on Rina's face that gave me the creeps. They idea of humiliating her hated rival to such a degree clearly appealed to her on a spiritual level. Ah, kindred spirits.

"The idea of humiliating Rina is far more appealing to me. I can see this story is about to get even worse. Why does Gambio keep making the side we're supposed to root for completely horrible?"

"Also she should've given a Rina a name that was less similar to Gina."

"Given Marcie and Gina's review of Monstergirl Academy-"

"Gina lost her shit over an antagonist being named Rina. At the time I thought it was because of how similar the name was to herself but now I'm starting to think it's because she had the same same as this piece of shit. How far did we get?"

"Five chapters?"

"Are you fucking kidding me! And still no more appearances from Tom?"

"At this point, Gambio would only ruin him. I'd rather imagine Tom got isekai'd into a better story. At best I'd say this story is an unnecessary "fix" to something that wasn't broken."

"That's putting it lightly."

"Next up, we're doing Bad Sex by Zeebop."